Saturday, February 28, 2015

{I sat down
with Gordie Johnson from Big Sugar this week to chat food, the new album, and
their upcoming show in my local stomping grounds of Jasper, Alberta}

J: So let’s cut the chase, what’s the last thing you ate?

G: We just had some
meatballs from famosos (a pizza chain in Alberta) that we went to right before
the show.We needed something good to
eat – so we ordered from famosos.It’s a small little quaint pizza place with really great sauce.Order me famosos and I’m good to go.

J: The band has been touring across Canada this winter, any
great local eateries along the way you’d like to tell us about?

G: We are always on
the lookout for good Ethopian food – we know a couple of cities in Canada that
we like to go to - Lethbridge Alberta has a really great restaurant [Abyssinian Restaurant]The
restaurant smells like frankincense, they make popcorn, roast all their own
coffee, amazing vegetarian food - it’s a whole experience really.

J: What’s your favourite Canadian cuisine?

G: I like a good
poutine, I haven’t had any in awhile!I
have a drummer from Texas with me, and we have to get him a good poutine, where do you recommend?

J: L&W Restaurant (a local eatery) has the best poutine you’ll ever taste
– their poutine’s are legendary.Kids
away at college come home and the first thing the do is grab one of their
poutines.

G: Any other great
eateries we should know about while we're in Jasper?

J: Well we have a Famoso's, since I know you like that - Jasper is really a great hub for unique eateries.Café Mondo has the best mulligawtany of your
life and since I know you take your coffee pretty seriously, Coco’s Café serves
up a great cup.

G: Oh ya, that will
make me happy.

J: So you’ve been playing in rural communities vs big cities
for this album - tell us about that.

G: The vibes have
been lovely everywhere we go – big cities, small towns – because it’s an
acoustic presentation it lends itself nicely to any space.

J: What made the band go in a more acoustical direction for
this album?

G: It’s almost like
recreation for us.It’s so much fun and so
easy to do – to play the music acoustically.It was something that was inspiring us and

it got such a nice
response that we booked a tour around it.We really like doing this.

J: What’s your favourite song on the new albumn?

G: All of them – we
only play the songs we love.

J: What inspires you?

G: I’ve written
hundreds of songs, I haven’t narrowed it down to one thing.We’re constantly scribbling in books,
cataloguing little ideas as we go.

J: Something that helps you get in the mood to write?

Yes, yes, red wine –
there’s lyrics in every bottle!

J: Any wine recommendations?

G: We are really
liking the 2010 Chianti Reserve right now – we are really liking those. You’ve
got to have a good red wine for it to be a good show.

J: Are there little pieces of home you like to bring while
on tour?

G: Once we get on
stage, we are at home.

J: Any great Gordie recipes you'd like to leave us with?

G: Something I’ve been doing lately is experimenting with Jamaican food. I learned how to make a fried egg with coconut oil – it’s almost like a deep-fried egg. You heat up coconut oil, it will get really hot really fast, and you break your egg gently in the oil – it just crusts perfectly round. It looks just like an English muffin when it comes out. It’s hard and crispy on the outside, with a little salt and pepper, and it’s nice and runny on the inside, it's really great. It’s such a simple thing, but that coconut oil gives it a certain fragrance and it’s really great.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Every year, my hometown has a "Bonhomme Carnaval"event at our local ski hill. This event is a celebration of French Canadian culture with traditional activities like this maple sugaring off on snow, cross country skiing, Norwegian sledding, RCMP in serge, and a bonhomme mascot. This year the event was hosted by the graduating class of 2015 - with all proceeds going towards their prom. The students were hard at work all day with the sugaring off, selling cans of maple syrup, and serving up traditional french tourtiere (meat pies), sugar pies, split pea soup, and baked beans. It was a truly French Canadian experience, and everything was authentic and delicious!

First they started by levelling off the snow:

Here they have pure Canadian maple syrup bubbling on the stove (at 113 degrees Celsius to be exact!):

A ladle of this is about to be turned into something quite delicious...

The ladle full of bubbling hot maple syrup is poured onto the snow:

You're given a wide popsicle stick, which you adhere to the maple syrup immediately. As it starts to cool, you slowly start to wrap the maple syrup around the popsicle stick until finally...

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Here is my most recent column in "The Hinton Voice", my local newspaper.

[In an effort to save
money on groceries, my husband and I have been making all of our bread from
scratch for the past several months.Not
only do we save copious amounts on our weekly grocery bill, the novelty of a
fresh loaf of bread directly out of the oven never loses it’s charm.Once we had the art of homemade bread down to
a science, I knew it was time to step it up a notch and start cutting out other
store bought purchases like pizza dough, bagels, and the perfect bed for eggs
benedict … English muffins.

Whether served simply
toasted with butter and jam, or in the most incredible breakfast sandwich you
will ever make in your life, these English muffins are definitely worth adding
to your baking list.They are both
dense and light all at the same time, with airy nooks and crannies just begging
to be filled with something delicious.]

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Welcome to Cooking With Jax! I'm Jacqueline (Jax) and I created this blog in January 2011 as a way to share my recipes with friends and family. Everyone was always asking me "Can I have your recipe for..." so I figured a blog would be a fun, easy way to not only catalogue my recipes, but to share them with the world. You can read more about me here.